Hand tools for installing tacks and the like



3 Sheets-Sheet 1 fflwmor Alber'f E/Vewzoh By his Attorney July 6, 1965 A. E. NEWTON HAND TOOLS FOR INSTALLING TACKS AND THE LIKE Filed June 13, 1963 A. E. NEWTON 3,193,167

HAND TOOLS FOR INSTALLING TACKS AND THE LIKE July 6, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 15, 1963 A. E. NEWTON 3,193,167

HAND TOOLS FOR INSTALLING TACKS AND THE LIKE July 6, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 13, 1963 United States Patent 3,193,167 HAND TOOLS FOR INSTALLING TACKS AND THE LIKE I Albert E. Newton, Beverly, Mass, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Boston, Mass, 2: corporation of New Jersey Filed June 13, 1963, Ser. No. 287,541 2 Claims. (Cl. 227-132) This invention relates to the provision of impact tools, and more especially to hand-held tackers and the like. Although the invention is herein illustrated as embodied in a low cost tacker which is easily manipulated and adapted automatically to feed a strip of the successive tacks to be inserted, it will be understood that in various aspects application of the invention is not thus limited but may be utilized in other devices requiring similar impact action.

Vast quantities of small components or fasteners such as tacks are being installed, usually in crowded or restricted work localities. For this work it is highly desirable that each insertion of a series be effected manually and accurately in a single operating stroke, that this tool be easily operable to exert impact in any selected direction, and that the tool be of simple structure to lend itself to low cost manufacture. Manually operable fastener inserting devices have, of course, hitherto been provided employing a driver movable in an inserting direction against the resistance of a return spring. It is acknowledged, too, that 'prior power tools have embodied spring actuated drivers wherein the potential energy of a loaded spring has been released at the will of an operator, for instance at his operation of mechanical latch means as by a trigger. With these considerations and earlier designs in mind, it is a primary object of this invention to provide an economical hand-operated fastener inserting tool of the general type indicated having improved, simple means for augmenting and sharpening the striking power of the driver.

It is a further and more specific object of the invention to provide a reliable, lightweight tacker having a mainly hand-actuated driver adapted to insert tacks from a supply strip, retraction of the driver between insertions being effective to advance into operating position the next stripmounted tack to be driven thereby.

To these ends, and in accordance with a novel feature of the invention, there is provided an impact type fastener inserting tool comprising in telescoping relation, a body including a nozzle adapted to be held against a work piece, an inner member movable to actuate a driver in the nozzle, an outer operating member, yieldable means connecting the outer member and the inner member for moving the latter in one direction to cause the driver to drive a fastener through the nozzle and into the work piece, and a magnet means for restraining the inner member against movement in the one direction to increase potential energy in the connecting means until the operating force of the outer member in the one direction overcomes the restraining influence of the magnet means, and the operating force being applied to the outer member is thereupon augmented by sudden release of the energy stored in the yieldable connecting means and transmitted through the driver to the fastener.

As herein shown, for purposes of economic assembly,

the driver is a straight .rod having one end directly secured to an end of the inner member and aligned with the nozzle,

and a latch plate cooperative with the magnet means is carried between a shoulder formed on the rod and the mentioned end of the inner member. Preferably for devices required to exert relatively small impact, as in the case of tack inserting, or merely punching holes in light work pieces such as paper, the magnet means is one or more permanent magnets which may be aflixed to the tool body. It will be appreciated, however, that it is within the scope of this invention to substitute an electromagnet for the permanent magnet means when desired. Also, although not necessarily thus limited, the yieldable means operatively connecting the outer and inner members is shown as a compression spring.

In order to enable the illustrative tool rapidly to insert successive fasteners, it is adapted to feed them by means of indexable sprockets meshing with a tape or strip carrying a roll of the fasteners. For this purpose and in keeping with a further feature of the invention, pawl mechanism operative on the return or inoperative stroke of the inner member, which in effect is integral with the driver and the latch plate, is employed to index the sprockets to advance the fastener next to be inserted into position to be engaged by the retracted driver. Though this invention is not limited to use with any particular tack strip, there is shown herein a preferred form of strip which is more fully disclosed in a copending application, Serial No. 289,828, filed lune 24, 1963, in my name.

The above and other features of the invention together with novel details and combinations of parts will now be more particularly described in connection with an illustrative embodiment and with reference to the accompanying drawings thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of a hand-held tacker in its normal inoperative condition and provided with automatic tack feed;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section on a larger scale of the lower portion of the tacker shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view on the lower portion of the tacker shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 but at right angles to these views to clarify mechanism for feeding a tack strip;

FIG. 4 is a view corresponding to FIG. 2 but showing the parts at a later stage in a cycle of operations, namely when a driver of the tool has completed its inserting stroke;

FIG. 5 -is a transverse section taken on the line V-V of FIG. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIGS. 68, inclusive, show one possible tack strip usable in the tacker, the views respectively being in plan, side elevation, and in section.

In the drawings the tool comprises an elongated hollow casing or body 10 which may be generally square in section and provided at one end with a radially slotted nozzle 12 having an exit bore 14 for fasteners such as tacks T to be inserted. In telescoping arrangement with the body 10 is an outer operating member 16. It has an internal end closure 18 and an external cap 20 preferably of rubber to cushion fastener inserting forces to be exerted manually and axially thereon. Also in telescoping relation to the body 10 is an internal tubular member 22. For reasons later explained the members 16, 22 are yieldably connected for relative axial sliding movement by a compression spring 24 one end of which abuts the closure 18 and the other end of which engages an end portion 26 of the member 22. It will accordingly be understood 5 6 driver, a latch plate afiixed to the driver, a magnet secured References Cited by the Examiner circumferentially on the body for cooperative engage- UNITED STATES PATENTS ment with the latch plate, and a retaining member secured to the manually operable member for retracting 1,568,260 1/26 Bates the plate for contact with the magnet and holding the 5 gi sprlng precompressed, the magnet belng lnitlally opera 2,983,922 5/61 Juilfs 1 44.4

tive during the operation of said one member to restrain the latch and an end of the spring to increase potential 308716O 4/63 Doppelt energy of the later, continued operating movement of the I one member causing the release of said energy to in- 10 GRANVILLE CUSTER Emmme" crease impact of the driver on the fastener. 

1. IN A HEAD-HELD FASTENER INSERTING TOOL, A BODY HAVING AN END PORTION THROUGH WHICH FASTENERS ARE TO BE DRIVEN, AN OUTER AND AN INNER MEMBER SLIDABLY MOUNTED WITH RESPECT TO THE BODY FOR MOVEMENT TOWARD AND FROM ITS END PORTION, ONE OF THE MEMBERS BEING ADAPTED TO BE MANUALLY OPERATED, A DRIVER CONNECTED TO THER OTHER MEMBER AND ARRANGED TO BE THRUST INTO THE END PORTION OF THE BODY IN RESPONSE TO MANUAL OPERATION OF THE ONE MEMBER IN A PREDETERMINED DIRECTION TO EJECT A FASTENER FOR INSERTION, A SPRING COMPRESSIBLE BY SAID OPERATION OF THE ONE MEMBER AND RELEASABLE TO EXERT AN INSERTING FORCE ON THE DRIVER, A LATCH PLATE, AFFIXED TO THE DRIVER, AND A MAGNET SECURED CIRCUMFERENTIALLY ON THE BODY FOR COOPERATIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE LATCH PLATE, THE MAGNET BEING INITIALLY OPERATIVE DURING THE OPERATION OF SAID ONE MEMBER TO RESTRAIN THE LACH AND AN END OF THE SPRING TO INCREASE POTENTIAL ENERGY OF THE LATTER, CONTINUED OPERATING MOVEMENT OF THE ONE MEMBER CAUSING THE RELEASE OF SAID ENERGY OF INCREASE IMPACT OF THE DRIVER ON THE FASTENER. 